Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
On a mission to get her belt back, Joanna Jedrzejczyk is determined she can dethrone Zhang Weili when they meet at UFC 248.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk has praised Zhang Weili for the size and power she possesses, but the former longtime strawweight champ thinks her experience will be too much for ‘Magnum.’
Zhang and Jedrzejczyk are scheduled to meet at UFC 248 in March. The current Chinese champion Zhang will be looking to defend her title for the first time after winning it against Jessica Andrade in August of last year.
Talking on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, Jedrzejczyk said both Zhang and Andrade are similar in their fighting styles, lacking technicality but possessing a lot of power.
“They (Zhang and Andrade) both are are very similar fighters,” Jedrzejczyk said. “Going forward, throwing loopy punches, looking for good wrestling, like strong wrestling. They’re not very technical fighters but they’re very, very strong, so I think this fight is going to be very similar. I will have to cut the angles, slip, counter, use my timing, my length, my reach.” (Transcription via theScore)
Jedrzejczyk held the strawweight title for over two years, defending it a total of five times. A win against Michelle Waterson in her return to strawweight after a flyweight title shot was enough to give Jedrzejczyk the chance to win her belt back, and she certainly isn’t she on confidence ahead of the fight with Zhang.
“She’s so big. She’s big. She’s huge and she throws very hard punches,” Jedrzejczyk said of Zhang. “But I’m more experienced. I’ve been through these championship bouts so many times, so I’m a real five-rounder.”